Accident

Last week there was a car accident in the city where B and Ans go to college. It involved 6 kids from ACU, their college, and another guy who hit them head on. 

Ansley knew some of the kids in the car. She's actually good friends with a couple of the girls. One of her best buds is still in the hospital recovering. This is Ans and another friend with Deanna in her hospital room.

One girl, whom our girls didn't know very well, died from her injuries. Today they will have her funeral and Ansley will be going. She and Ansley were in the same theater group although Ansley had only met her the week before. Her name is Lindsey and last semester she was out of the country in ACU's study abroad program, so Ansley only met her as the new semester started. 

Lindsey's parents invited the theater group to their house for supper last night and asked them to perform at her funeral today. I know it won't be easy for them but I know they will all do a great job. 

We pray often for our daughters' safety. We pray often for all our kids' safety day to day but it seems there is a tendency to pray more for B and Ans. Being 5,000 miles away isn't always the easiest. If there is a problem we can't just get in the car and drive to their campus in two hours the way our parents could. It's a day or two of catching airplanes. Why do we pray more when the distance is greater? I've never understood that about human nature and yet I continue to do it. 

Ansley was actually going with that group last Friday night. For some reason, at the last minute, she decided to go with another group of friends to another thing. 

I shudder to think what our week would be like if she had been in that truck and had died, but she wasn't. 

Does that mean God listened to our prayers more than those of Lindsey's parents? Of course not. I'm sure they prayed regularly for Lindsey's safety as well. Maybe even more than we pray for our girls. I don't believe God honored our prayers more than any one else's. Sometimes life happens and it isn't always the warm fuzzy we want it to be.  And yet God still uses that to His glory if we allow Him to work. 

So easy for me to type that with all my kids safe, but I believe it after hearing what is going on at ACU this week. How the president, students and teachers are being God's family in this time of sadness. And, more importantly, how everyone is keeping their eyes on God during all this. 

If your faith is weakened today, if your faith eyes need refocusing, if your faith needs a boost then you will want to read about what God is doing in the midst of tragedy. 

Read about what the survivors are saying about what happened. Read about what the first people on the scene of the accident say. Read what the president said. Read about what God is doing in the middle of all this. 

You can read it all by clicking here.

Please pray for Lindsey Smith's family (the young woman who died). Life goes on for everyone else around them but they must begin a new life that no longer includes their daughter. Please pray for God's supernatural comfort for them and for Him to send so many people to comfort them for the next days, weeks and months. That the people around them don't forget that this healing will take a long, long time. Pray for God's family to be God's family to them right now. 

As sad as I know they are right now I get the feeling her funeral today will be a celebration of her life. 

As Callie says in the article, "I wouldn't want to come back from where she is now."

May we all live this day like that. With our eyes on the kingdom prize and not on things of this world. 

Two-Thousand Times More Effective

Two thousand years ago the disciples of Jesus started a movement that changed the world. Are we still changing the world? We can. We can be two thousand times more effective--if we try!

Here's an example. There are 145 million orphans worldwide. Nearly 236 million of us living in the U.S. call ourselves Christian. From a purely statistical standpoint, by ourselves, we have the wherewithal to house every orphan in the world. There's enough food on the planet to feed the hungry! But the storehouse is locked.

God has given our generation everything we need to alter the course of human suffering. Change must start with us! With our transformation! Ours is the wealthiest generation of Christians ever! We can be more effective--if only we try!

Max Lucado

Santa Maria

I'm sure most, if not all, of you have heard what happened last weekend in Santa Maria, Brazil.

If you haven't then you can click here to read about it.

It was a terrible, terrible tragedy.

Santa Maria is a town in our state and it has emotionally affected everyone. All the professional soccer games on Sunday were cancelled in our state. I've never seen that happen in 11 years of living here.

What happened is, obviously, filling the newspapers and newscasts.  We didn't know anyone who died, but we do know people who have lost friends.

Please join us in praying for all those personally affected.

Lillie Grace

We just put Lillie Grace (or as Gi sometimes called her "Really Grace") on a plane headed back to the states.

She spent about three weeks with us and was a real blessing to our family and our ministry.

She jumped right in, never missed a beat, was a huge help with family/ministry stuff and even got really good at picking on Garrett.

We really enjoyed having her around and will miss her.

Please feel free to pray with us for safe travels for Lillie Grace all the way back to her home.

Thank you!

"Gone are the exertions of law-keeping, gone the disciplines of legalism, the anxiety that having done everything we might not have done enough. We reach the goal, not by the stairs, but by the lift-God pledges His promised righteousness to those who will stop trying to save themselves!"

J.A. Moyer

Tonight

Hey Ans,

First game is tonight!

Taça Libertadores 2013Qua. 23/01 às 22h00 - Casa Blanca

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I know you'd love to be there again with your buds watching this one.

It's still so easy to pick you out of this picture. It's been a while since I looked at it and I had forgotten where you were. I looked at it for about 2 seconds and found you again. Wonder why? Tall, white, blond hair, blue eyed girl in the middle of a soccer crowd in Quito. Not too hard to find you.

Anyway, we'll be watching it for you and yelling hard for your second favorite team.  I'll even have my jersey on.

Good luck!

Put God before yourself and the world and even your evil desires will begin to be transformed. 

Fenelon

We're Back!

We just put these three goobers on two different planes.

B and Ans headed back to college and Carys and a friend of hers flew to another state to stay with her friends aunt and spend a week at the beach. If you know Carys would you expect anything different from her than a shirt that says "Good Witch?" Probably not.

The big girls had a great helper with their bags.

Who then cried and cried when it was time to say goodbye. Which made the girls cry.

Next time we see the big goobers will be at B's wedding and that thought seemed to help Anderson with the tears.........

..........but it was still tough for him. I love his sensitive heart when it's time to say goodbye to his brothers and sisters.

Garrett left Saturday morning for a soccer tournament in another part of our state and, hopefully, will be gone until Friday. The more they win the longer they will stay and keep playing.

That leaves just us with the two little squirts and Lillie Grace. Here is a picture of her that Gi took.

If you live with the Blumes for very long we tend to have this effect on you.

She's the daughter of one of Benay's best buds from college. She came here to help us out and work with our ministry for 3 weeks. She rolls with the flow of our family and fits right in. The boys are glad to have another big sister here with them while the rest are gone.

We would appreciate prayers for safe travels for all the traveling Blumes over the next week.